More Text GIFs

Two things I learned since yesterday. The GIMP filter I used was Animation > Waves, not Animation > Rippling. It just looked like water ripples to me.

The other thing, which was helpful in combining the elements, was the Animation > Blend filter. At least two layers and the background are needed. There doesn't seem to be a limit to that number. Running the filter will output the required number of frames in the transitions.

The banner has been redone in the same way.

Get Ready for Spring

It has been a while since I created another banner. Once again I resorted to GIMP for the animation. What I wanted to try most was the rippling filter.

The last time I used this filter, it was directly onto the image. Now I wanted to incorporate it as an element in the banner to cycle once. This I achieved by applying the filter to the layer which was the flower image you see. The resulting ripple appears over an area of the banner.

Next, the text can appear to fade in with a blend filter.

Since it was created to loop, there was more frames there than I actually needed.

The finished banner is a result of a combination of these layers. I had to erase parts of the text layers to reveal the image under it, but that was easy enough to do.

Next time, I will be attempting to add multiple ripples to an image.

Best Wishes for the New Year

The last few years, I have prepared animated gifs for sending electronic greetings. Several weeks ago, I decided to use this marionette I purchased from the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) to make a movie. Thus began my getting acquainted with its controls.

It was really a display model, but the strings do work the puppet. Over the weeks, while waiting for enough natural lighting to film, I learned to simulate dance or rather skating moves. A couple of days earlier I found the shoulder strings could mimic this.

Now, the difficult part was how to manipulate the puppet with one hand, either left or right, when I have to still operate the camera. That entailed practicing through watching the camera's flip screen.

Without too much planning, I proceeded to capture random scenes, with the final frame being the puppet fallen as if it had crashed into a gift box. Included background audio from a Christmas CD. I snapped a still image of that last frame for a gif to achieved the desired transition. Fortunately for this video, I just needed the first and last image, since I used a WeVideo preset style. Good to know that WeVideo now provides editable transitions and effects as well.

I was rather pleased with the results. As I have yet to make my dream paper puppet come to life, I was happy with the staging involved in this project. It's back to making animated gifs, until next year.

In case you were wondering. This was sold as a Pinocchio. My snowman marionette would have been a more appropriate choice, but this one works better.